ServisFirst Bank has expanded its footprint into the Mobile market with a loan production office in the heart of the city’s central business district.

The Alabama Banking Department approved the Birmingham-based bank’s application for the office in July.

ServisFirst is currently leasing a portion of the first floor of the 6,880 square-foot building, according to John Vallas Jr. of Mobile-based Vallas Realty Inc.

Representatives from the bank declined to discuss details about the new office, but the location is listed on the bank’s website.

ServisFirst, which was established in 2005, has branch locations in Birmingham, Huntsville, Montgomery, Dothan and Pensacola, Fla. It opened a second Pensacola branch in May, just 13 months after expanding into the Florida region.

About 20 banks have a presence in the Mobile metro area, with Regions Bank and Wells Fargo Bank N.A. among the largest players, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

There are also four banks headquartered in the market. BankTrust, which has $2 billion in assets, is the largest, but it will soon be acquired by Mississippi-based Trustmark Corp.

Vallas said ServisFirst’s new loan production office is in a prominent location within walking distance to several major downtown office buildings.

Trabo Reed, deputy superintendent of the Alabama Banking Department, said the volume of new loan production offices opening this year is on par with the level before the financial crisis, but there has been a huge drop in new full-service branch openings.

Alabama-chartered banks opened 102 new branches and nine loan production offices in fiscal year 2007, compared to only nine new branches and nine loan production offices through August this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, according to the Alabama Banking Department.

“Overall, state-chartered banks aren’t expanding and getting out there in an aggressive way,” Reed said. “It might just be that they’re testing the water right now, seeing if the economy has picked up in certain places.”

He said banks in a position to open new offices are willing to take some chances in markets where they think the real estate market might have bottomed out or business conditions may have improved.

“Mobile certainly is a place where there is a lot of business activity and new jobs,” Reed said.